This
young recluse occupies the nexus where Ted Kaczynski and Aleister Crowley
overlap. It is a decidedly anti-social place to be, but he anticipates a
powerful payoff for his esoteric explorations. Unfortunately, he is either
going stark, staring mad or has attracted the attention of profoundly sinister
forces (or perhaps both) in Joel Potrykus’s The
Alchemist Cookbook (trailer
here), which
opens tomorrow in select theaters and also releases on VOD and as a special
pay-as-you-wish bit torrent package, courtesy of the filmmaker and Oscilloscope
Films.
Shunning
society, Sean has sequestered himself to a trailer in the Michigan woods, where
his experiments apparently combine chemistry, the occult, and the sacrifice of
small woodland mammals. He seems to think he is locked in a death struggle with
a demon that haunts the woods, but it is important to remember Sean has gone
off his meds.
His
cousin Cortez periodically brings him supplies, but somehow he left behind the
anti-psychotics (of all the things he could forget), along with the eggs
(making matters even worse). Cortez is Sean’s lifeline to civilization, but
things are already awkward between them and become ever more frayed as the film
progresses. Sean sure seems to be losing it, but that also might mean his very
soul is in jeopardy.
Cookbook is definitely going
for a Polanski vibe of madness and warped perspectives that openly invites us
to question whether or not the menace is truly uncanny or imagined. However, it
might be too subtle and reserved for its own good. When the film finally
commits it essentially functions as a punchline rather than a climax.
Still,
it mostly works on its own ambiguous terms thanks to the small ensemble (two
people, a cat, a possum, and maybe the demon Belial). As Sean, Ty Hickson
starts out unnervingly edgy and goes convincingly bonkers from there. However,
it is Amari Cheatom’s Cortez who really makes the film, providing much needed
energy boosts and serving as a credible audience surrogate, asking all our WTF
questions. The way he and Hickson play off each other suggests years of complicated
shared history.